In 2015, the Lewis County Board of Legislators recognized the need for an educational program that could offer workforce development opportunities to meet the needs of local manufacturers, area businesses, and residents. Lewis County earmarked funding for the construction of an education center and in 2018 partnered with Jefferson Community College, Jefferson-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) and Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) of Lewis County to plan and bring the project to fruition.

After much consideration, C&S Companies was selected to design the Lewis County-Jefferson Community College Education Center - the first of its kind in the region. The building will offer key programs to serve the educational needs of the local community while addressing staffing issues that plague local area employers.

Providing for all of the program and tenant needs initially resulted in a building that would have been twice the size of what was authorized by Lewis County. This required some creative problem solving by C&S’s architects, creating flexible spaces with a retractable demising wall, shared common spaces, and helping the tenants coordinate their programs in a way that would fit within the building footprint and provide ample room for the programs to meet the needs of the community.

The 22,000-square-foot, single-story building houses five instructional classrooms, each equipped with state-of-the-art touch-screen smart boards; a 1,400-square-foot classroom with specialized hydraulic and mechatronic equipment to teach advanced manufacturing skills; a 5,500-square-foot fabrication “fab” lab; a 1,900-square-foot BOCES agro-forestry lab; a student lounge; administrative offices; and conference room and suite for the Cornell Cooperative Extension, which relocated its offices.

Since the facility’s official opening in January of 2019, over 200 students in Lewis County have been served, participating in educational courses including a transition program for military soldiers, a carpentry bootcamp, advanced manufacturing training, and multiple health career education programs. The state-of-the-art facility will welcome even more students in the futures as it begins to offer credit bearing courses.

The forward thinking, collaboration, and innovative design of the Lewis County-Jefferson Community College Education Center will continue to contribute to the region’s local economy and sense of community well into the future.